Realm of the Mad God

Realm of the Mad God is a browser based MMORPG. And probably the only modern, if not only, MMO to make dying permanent; RotMG is a simplified class based MMORPG. There are many rigid classes, a small number of simple stats, and quite a few tiers of static loot; Additionally, any single class only has two abilities that it can use, that class` main attack (which really only fluctuates in effectiveness with different equipment) and the special ability that uses MP.

One of the best examples of this simple greatness that makes up RotMD is the quest system. First off there is the overall quest of every player in a particular world, which is to summon and defeat the mad god himself, Oryx. To kill him you are likely going to need many max level characters working together; But to even get that far you need to first defeat all of the quest monsters to get him to show up. Even brand new players can help here as there are quest monsters of all levels. Basically anyone of the correct level range in the general vicinity of a quest monster will be notified of its location and if you travel to that location and kill it then you have helped out the entire world in your own little way (and been justly rewarded with loot and experience).

It is also worth mentioning that RotMG has completely done away with the infamously complicated system of windows needed to display all the information of a normal MMORPG and no windows or additional GUI is ever needed nor are any special keyboard shortcut used. And since it is supposed to be a coop game most of the time you are not soloing as experience is not split between players but simply given to everyone in the vicinity, so there are never any hard feelings about just tagging along with even the most advanced groups. this is a huge boon to the less socially apt. I normally hate groups in MMOs, depending on the game you can get into arguments over the loot, or you feel bad leaving a group in the lurch if you have to go on short notice. It is just so much nicer with the easy going, spontaneous, groups that form in RotMG.

It is incredibly fun and addicting, and very easy to get into. The only downside is the incredibly huge amount of bandwidth it takes to play; And as impossible as it seems I have checked and rechecked and it really seems like the game takes 50-100 kbps of your bandwidth while you play.

You can play Realm of the Mad God over at it web site, here (http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/).

My mini-review of Realm of the Mad God.

Subsonic Review

Subsonic is a free web based music streamer. with it installed on your computer you can access your music anywhere that you have access to the Internet and on any device that has a Flash enabled browser (in addition the iPhone, Android, Windows, Linux, and Mac have specific applications for use with Subsonic).

Subsonic works with all stream able audio formats. Additionally, it can use on-the-fly conversion to convert any non stream able format and stream it to the web player.

As well as streaming the music to your browser it can also operate in Jukebox mode, allowing you to control what your host computer is playing.

Additionally, you can use it to upload any file to your computer.

These last two features work particularly well with the robust user account system. It is easy to set up any number of accounts for yourself or your friends and even includes a IM IRC style chatting system allowing you to collaboratively set up playlists or build a collection of music.